Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land
The Sochi Project
Self Published
Photographs by: Rob Hornstra
Texts by: Arnold van Bruggen
Hardcover
272 pages
172×220 mm
2013
ISBN: Not available
In Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land, we explore the unknown country of Abkhazia on the Black Sea. Abkhazia broke away from Georgia after a short, violent civil war in ’92-’93 and was recognised as independent in 2008 by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and the atoll of Nauru. We have spent the last four years travelling through the country, seeing how it is slowly trying to claw its way out of isolation. We visited the refugees in Georgia and described the attempts made by the Abkhazian government to repopulate the empty, war-ravaged country with new immigrants.
Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen have been working together since 2007 to tell the story of Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. They have returned repeatedly to this region as committed practitioners of “slow journalism,” establishing a solid foundation of research on and engagement with this small yet incredibly complicated region before it finds itself in the glare of international media attention.
www.thesochiproject.org
